Bygone Rail: Hampton-St. Martins, Hampton #1 Traditional Cache

Cache Details

The Cache is located at the start of the line near the Hampton Station. You will be standing at what remains of the line. You will be looking at history as more than a century ago trains would use this line on a daily basis. Take a moment and try to imagine what it must have looked like back then.

Hampton Station

The area’s first railway station was built in 1859, but burned to the ground in 1867. The new station house was built later that same year, and around 1922 was partly demolished and renovated into the building that stands on site today. The last station master ended his service in 1974. It currently houses the VIC, a gift shop, and is a satellite location of the Kings Co. Museum featuring railway artefacts. This station has had an interesting history. For about 40 years after the opening of the rail line towards St. Martins in 1877, the Hampton Station was home to two separate railways. In 1918 the St. Martins line was purchased by the Canadian Government Railways and merged into the Intercolonial Railway. The trains to and from St. Martins were operated from its own side of the station until the railway operations to St. Martins was discontinued August 1, 1940.

History

The Hampton & St. Martins Railway was originally conceived to connect the rural communities in the Hammond River valley with the outside world. Hampton, at one end of the line had excellent rail and riverboat service to Saint John. Approximaely 28 miles away, at the other end of the line, St Martins had been a shipbuilding centre and was served by regular coastal freighter. By the 1870's, however, shipbuilding was in decline, and boat connections soon disappeared. As a result, the new railway would provide a lifeline for St Martins as well.

Alas, the area was too sparsely populated, and there were too few industries to ever allow the railroad to prosper. It spent much of its existence in financial hardship and changed hands a number of times. It was taken over and modernized as part of the federal railway system at the end of WW1, but the writing was on the wall. As was the case for many railroads, better road transportation reduced the need for this little branchline even further and it came to its inevitable demise in 1940.

Information stol...er....borrowed from the excellent rxzephyr cache GCNM5Z which stol...er....borrowed from Lou McIntyre, a fellow member of the SJSMR. More information can be found at his Hampton & St. Martins Railway Webpage